Love/hate brainstorming

So many things I want to do... how will I decide?

Now that I have some idea of what I want my magazine to look like, I have to consider what the content will be. That's a bit of a problem because I LOVE food, all things about it. The ingredients. The condiments. The drinks that accompany them. The desserts. Their presentation. And of course, the rich diversity of cuisines. 
Two topics that I have seriously put thought into are making the issue of the magazine a special feature on cocktails (or mocktails if the thematic of cocktails is an issue) or making the theme a feature (or possibly a whole magazine) around fusion cuisine. 
For the magazine about cocktails, I have gotten much of my inspiration from an Instagram account I follow called @licensed_to_distill which posts high quality pictures of drinks (both cocktails and mocktails). The main reason why I follow this account is because of its photography and because I am fascinated by how versatile mixologists can be when making a drink, making a garnish with just about anything. Here are some of my personal favorites:

I have also seen this trend in other Instagram pages, not necessarily dedicated to cocktails, such as @food52. This proves that even a well-established Instagram account that posts mainly about food still considers and acknowledges the importance of a cocktail as a possible complement to a meal. Here are some examples:

What draws me about the photography of these pages is the potential a drink has in terms of having pops of color, garnishes that stand out and especially how you can play with the light that shines through a glass. These Instagram pages clearly want to establish a luxurious feel as photography is set "fancy" table tops and drinks look simple, yet they have some sort of elaborate garnish or are served in a cool glass. This clean photography with pops colors is something I feel could fit well with the aesthetic I have in mind and is something I can play with more freely. Of course, I have yet to figure out if this topic is viable... if not I can do the magazine on mocktails and create a similar feel. However, I would like it to be about cocktails as these carry a luxurious image in themselves and are popular (considering the licensed to distill Instagram account has over 1 million followers).

As for my idea on making the magazine on fusion cuisine, I think this is a viable path because of the rise in popularity of this topic. Examples of this cuisine include Tex-Mex, Peruvian-Japanese, and Vietnamese-Chinese. It is something that is popular enough to have a following yet it is not as commonly featured as other types of cuisine. Nevertheless, the topic has enough relevance to be one of the first trends fro 2019 the Michelin Guide talks about for new food trucks. However, it also seems to be a topic of some controversy as it has sparked issues with what is labeled as "Fusion Confusion", which is when chefs are too eager to innovate that they fail to realize the fusion of flavors is actually disastrous, resulting in something like this:

Whoever combined Pad Thai and Torteloni needs to do some rethinking... That does not look good! Either way, I do not believe handling this topic would arise much of a problem, especially since I am tasked with doing only one issue of the magazine. If picked carefully, the double spread and photography can turn out to be eye-catching (as fusion cuisine challenges standards) and elegant. Here is a good example of what fusion cuisine (done right) looks like:

Don't tell me that doesn't look good, elegant and colorful. I think going for a combination like the one above (Peruvian-Japanese) for the central topic of the magazine's issue will fit cohesively with the image I am going for. 

Let's see where I am at a week from today with these ideas.